The Development of Clustering in Episodic Memory: A Cognitive-Modeling Approach

Younger children’s free recall from episodic memory is typically less organized than recall by older children. To investigate if and how repeated learning opportunities help children use organizational strategies that improve recall, the authors analyzed category clustering across four study-test cycles. Seven-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and young adults (N = 150) studied categorically related words for a free-recall task. The cognitive processes underlying recall and clustering were measured with a multinomial model. The modeling revealed that developmental differences emerged particularly in the rate of learning to encode words as categorical clusters. The learning curves showed a common pattern across age groups, indicating developmental invariance. Memory for individual items also contributed to developmental differences and was the only factor driving 7-year-olds’ moderate improvements in recall.     

Artificial grammar learning in primary school children with and without developmental dyslexia

This paper explores implicit learning in typically developing and primary school children (9–12 years old) with developmental dyslexia using an artificial grammar learning (AGL) task. Two experiments were conducted, which differed in time of presentation and nature of the instructional set (experiment 1—implicit instructions vs experiment 2—explicit instructions). Repeated measures analysis of variance (group × grammaticality × chunk strength) showed a group effect only in experiment 1 (implicit instructions), with only the typically developing children showing evidence of AGL. There was a grammaticality effect (adherence to the rules) for both groups in the two experimental situations. We suggest that the typically developing children exhibited intact implicit learning as manifested in AGL performance, whereas children with developmental dyslexia failed to provide such evidence due to possible mediating cognitive developmental factors.     

Activation of inaccurate prior knowledge affects primary-school students’ metacognitive judgments and calibration

The study investigated whether activation of inaccurate prior knowledge before study contributes to primary-school children’s commission errors and overconfidence in these errors when learning new concepts. Findings indicate that inaccurate prior knowledge affects children’s learning and calibration. The level of children’s judgments of learning for recall responses for which they would not receive credit was inappropriately high after activation of inaccurate prior knowledge.Moreover, results showed that activation of inaccurate prior knowledge was not only detrimental for monitoring judgments during learning, but also for calibration accuracy after test taking. When judging the quality of their recall responses on the posttest, children were more overconfident when they had activated inaccurate prior knowledge. Also, the children often discarded concepts from further study after activation of inaccurate prior knowledge. These results suggest that in order to improve self-regulated learning, it may be important to detect inaccuracies in children’s prior knowledge.     

Effects of Self-Concept on Learning with Gifted Children

Abstract

The present study examined die influence self-concept played in a verbal free recall and non-verbal paired associate learning task with gifted children. Twenty-four male and 24 female pre-adolescents were divided into high and low self-concept groups for each sex, forming four groups with 12 subjects in each group. A 20-item free recall task and a five-trial, six-item non-verbal paired associate learning task were administered. High self-esteem boys and girls showed significantly greater mastery of all learning tasks than lower self-concept counterparts. Analysis of organization scores supported the use of more sophisticated learning strategies by children with higher self-perceptions.     

Elaboration and metamemory during adolescence

The memory performance of 7th- and 11th-grade students was examined as a function of instructional conditions on two different cued recall tasks. In addition, several metamemory measures were obtained to examine the relationship between metamemory and actual performance during adolescence. Seventh-grade students performed better with elaborative prompting instructions on the more difficult cued recall task. Eleventh-grade students, however, performed better with control instructions than with repetition instructions for both tasks, and performed as well as those with elaboration instructions on the less difficult list. On the more difficult list, those students with elaboration instructions recalled more nouns than those with control instructions. Eleventh-grade students also appeared to be more accurate in their prediction of performance, reported more elaboration-type strategies, and appeared to have more knowledge of memory variables than did 7th-grade students.     

Individual differences in children's ability to profit from picture adjunct aids

A paired-associate memory task with pictures and words as items was used to categorize fourth graders into four learner types: HH, high picture-high word; HL, high picture-low word; LH, low picture-high word; LL, low picture-low word. Some children in each classification read prose passages with picture adjunct aids; other children read the passages without adjunct aids. Although free recall for the prose passage yielded inconclusive data, a constructed response test for facts in the prose passages revealed significant Aptitude × Treatment interactions, such that poor paired-associate learners (i.e., LLs) profited more than did good paired-associate learners (i.e., HHs) from picture aids on the prose task. The children's standardized reading scores were positively related to memory performance, but good and poor readers did not differ in their ability to profit from picture aids. It was suggested that less-strategic learners, such as those who perform poorly on paired-associate tasks, are more likely to be helped by externally provided mediational aids, while more-strategic learners are more likely to be helped by instructions to generate their own mediational aids.     

Cerebral laterality effects in the dual processing of prose

The degree to which the concreteness of prose material presented in an auditory fashion would interact with learners' lateral preference under different right hemispheric presentation conditions was investigated with 96 normal adults. Forty-eight subjects with consistent right preference patterns and a like number of bilateral individuals were either instructed to image, given a visual-spatial interference task, or given no instructions before listening to passages which differed in abstractness. As predicted across conditions, learners recalled a significantly greater number of ideas when the passage was concrete. Importantly, the abstractness was found to interact with subjects' inferred cerebral dominance. Whereas instructions to image and visual interference had little significant effect on mixed dominant subjects, for more consistently lateralized subjects imagery instructions increased and right-hemispheric interference decreased concrete recall. The results were interpreted in terms of visual and verbal encoding concomitant with cerebral lateralization.     

Enhancing learning by retrieval: Enriching free recall with elaborative prompting

It is well-established in memory research that retrieval fosters learning. When applying this effect in education, it is an important question which type of retrieval task works best. Several studies have shown that learning is enhanced by linking new information with prior knowledge. A potential approach to making retrieval more effective, therefore, is to enrich retrieval instructions with the requirement to elaborate on the learning contents and link them to what is already known. In this study, we compared a free recall condition, as used in many studies on learning by retrieval, with a prompted recall condition in which learners were required to recall the information and apply it to their lives. Fifty-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of these two conditions. They learned from a video-recorded lecture. One week later, learning outcomes were assessed by a posttest measuring fact recall and comprehension of the contents from the video lecture. Learners in the prompted recall group, compared to the free recall group, used more elaborative strategies in response to the recall task and achieved better comprehension scores. The effect on comprehension was mediated by the use of elaborative strategies. This pattern of results supports the constructive retrieval hypothesis, stating that retrieval is most effective when it involves constructive elaboration of the contents being learned. Our findings also encourage the use of pedagogical tasks in classroom teaching that combine elaboration and retrieval.     

The effect of field dependence and outline condition on learning high- and low-structure information from a lecture

Sixty-eight college students participated in the current research investigating the effects of an outline on field-dependent and field-independent students' learning of structurally important and less important information from a lecture. The lecture involved a 20-minute videotaped presentation on bird migration. Learning was assessed using a free recall task 10 minutes after the lecture (immediate recall) and both free recall and probed recall tasks one week after the lecture (delayed recall). Data were analyzed using mixed factorial ANOVAs. Results indicated that the outline assisted the field-dependent students in recall of high structure information and field-independent students in recall of low structure information. Performance of field-dependent and field-independent students was equivalent on probed recall of low-structure information, but significant differences were found on the free recall of low-structure information. It is proposed that these differences are attributable to superior organizational abilities of the field-independent students and to use of the outline as a guide for retrieval.     

The effects of practice schedule on learning a complex judgment task

The effects of practice schedule on learning a complex judgment task were investigated. In Experiment 1, participants' judgment accuracy on a retention test was higher after a random practice schedule than after a blocked schedule or operational schedule. Experiment 2 demonstrated that judgment on a transfer test was also better after a random practice schedule than after a blocked schedule. Both experiments failed to show any effects of practice schedule on performance during learning. These findings show that benefits of random practice for retention and transfer apply to learning a complex judgment task, and may be achieved without performance degradation during practice.     

Task Dependency and the Role of Category Typicality and Metamemory in the Development of an Organizational Strategy

Second and fourth graders received 1 of 3 lists of items differing in category representativeness in either a free recall or a sort-recall task. The selection of list materials permitted a separation of the effects of age differences in category knowledge from those of that knowledge per se on children's recall behavior. Proximal and distal measures of metamemory also were derived. Levels of recall and clustering were superior in the sort-recall task and for items of high category typicality. Recall also increased with age, while grade effects for clustering were restricted to the sort-recall/high typicality condition. The deliberate use of an organizational strategy increased with items' category typicality and with age, and was more frequent in the sort-recall than in the free recall task. The results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that most 10-year-olds are capable of strategically activating category knowledge in appropriate task environments when items of high category typicality are provided.     

How is knowledge generated about memory encoding strategy effectiveness?

This study evaluated how people learn about encoding strategy effectiveness in an associative memory task. Individuals studied two lists of paired associates under instructions to use either a normatively effective strategy (interactive imagery) or a normatively ineffective strategy (rote repetition) for each pair. Questionnaire ratings of imagery effectiveness increased and ratings of repetition effectiveness decreased after task experience, demonstrating new knowledge about strategy effectiveness. Cued recall confidence judgments, measuring confidence in recall accuracy, were almost perfectly correlated with actual recall and strongly correlated with postdictions—estimates of recall for each strategy. A structural regression model revealed that postdictions mediated both changes in second-list predictions and changes in strategy effectiveness ratings, implicating accurate performance estimates based on item-level monitoring as the key to updating strategy knowledge.     

Selective attention of impulsive and reflective children

Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test was used to select 36 impulsive and 36 reflective children at each of three grade levels: kindergarten, second, and fifth. An incidental learning paradigm was used to assess the child's recall of central and incidental information. Reflective subjects recalled more central and incidental information than impulsives, suggesting that impulsives have difficulty encoding information for storage. Central recall increased with grade level but incidental learning remained constant, a finding consistent with the developmental trend found in previous investigations. A task order effect was found in the recall of central information with more errors made when the central recall task was presented after the incidental. This order effect may account for the higher central recall scores found in previous investigations. Other problems with the incidental learning paradigms raise questions about the validity of the task for inferring selective attention. Despite the problems associated with the task, the results offer further evidence to support the notion that impulsive and reflective children differ on dimensions other than response latency.     

Goal neglect and working memory capacity in 4- to 6-year-old children

Goal neglect is the phenomenon of failing to execute the momentary demands of a task despite understanding and being able to recall the task instructions. Successful goal maintenance is more likely to occur in adults with high working memory capacity (WMC) who can keep rules mentally accessible while performing the task. The current study predicted that goal neglect would also be related to WMC in children. It assessed thirty-seven 4-year-old and twenty-eight 6-year-old children on the goal neglect version of the Dimensional Change Card Sort, and 3 tasks that measure WMC. As predicted, children with higher WMC scores were more likely to maintain goals adequately for task performance. The findings are consistent with a 2-factor model of working memory and its development.     

The influence of instruction on verbatim and content text recall

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight‐ and nine‐year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and content recall might indicate separate storage of verbatim and gist information, and could provide evidence for two subprocesses of text processing – that is, for construction and integration. The instructions were administered either before or after hearing the text, and recall was tested again one week later. The results showed differential instruction effects on verbatim and content recall. These effects depended on the time of instruction. Verbatim instruction had an enhancing effect on verbatim recall, both when instructions were given before and when given after text presentation. Content instruction given after text presentation had a suppressing effect on verbatim recall, but involved no advantage for content recall. Content recall was not suppressed by verbatim instruction at any time of instruction. Thus, the processing of content seems to be less situated than the processing of verbatim information.     

Allocation of time in self-paced memory tasks: the role of practice, instructions, and individual differences in optimizing performance

Nelson & Narens (1990) proposed that the allocation of study time in self-paced memory tasks depends on the comparison between the norm of study (established before studying) and the level of learning reached. We explored the role of practice, instructions, and individual differences in determining the norm of study and optimizing performance. In Study 1, participants carried out various study trials involving different (but similar) lists of words. In Study 2, participants were instructed to attain either maximum recall or maximum speed. In Study 3, the study time spontaneously used by each participant was estimated. The effect of increasing or decreasing this time was observed. Memory span and speed of lexical processing were also measured. Finally, Study 4 estimated participants were able to adapt performance to objective criteria (e.g., instructions). However, the time that they spontaneously use tends to be the most efficient. Variations in these times lead to losses in efficiency. Differences in processing capacity or motivation seem not to determine the differences in study time.     

An Exploration of the Interaction between Speech Rate,Gender, and Cognitive Style in their Effect on Recall

This paper explores how the interaction between cognitive style, gender, and type of task predicts task outcome, particularly when presentation speed is varied. A sample of 91 11‐year‐old pupils completed the Cognitive Style Analysis. Pupils were assigned to one of two groups balanced for gender and cognitive style. Group 1 listened to a recording of a passage presented at 84wpm; Group 2 listened to the same passage at 197wpm. Pupils were then required to comprehend and recall information from the passage that required assimilation of distantly positioned information. Male verbalisers and female imagers performed well in the slow condition but poorly in the fast condition. Female verbalisers showed improved performance in the fast condition. Results indicate that the interaction between verbal–imagery style and gender predicts the outcome of verbal tasks, especially when processing speed is restricted. These results support differences in information processing between genders and also suggest that this processing is mediated by verbal–imagery cognitive style.     

MEMORY STRATEGIES REPORTED BY OLDER ADULTS FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND EVERYDAY LEARNING TASKS

Semistructured interviews were used to identify memory strategies used by 35 older adults. Five types of tasks were used: paired‐associate learning, free recall, serial recall, rule learning, and reading comprehension. For the first three tasks, two types of materials were developed: experimental and everyday. The nine memory activities were presented separately. Participants were asked to describe the strategies they would use for each activity. Order of presentation for the experimental and everyday materials was counterbalanced. Examination of the frequency data revealed differences in the number and type of strategies reported for the five types of learning tasks. An analysis of variance revealed that the group receiving the three everyday tasks first reported a significantly greater use of strategies on all tasks. These results indicate that the elderly may have limited repertoires of alternative memory strategies and that the types of materials used can significantly affect their performance.     

Presentation rate effects on paired associate learning by attention deficit disordered children

2 methods of varying presentation rate during paired associate learning were contrasted in attention deficit disordered (ADD) children. Previous studies have varied presentation rate across different (fixed rate) lists, and they have demonstrated that ADD children perform poorly at slower rates. In the present study, this method of presentation was contrasted with one in which half the items within a single list were presented at a fast rate and half at a slow rate. The debilitating effect of the slow rate was obtained in ADD children (but not in normal controls) only with the fixed list method. This finding suggests that the rate effects occur in ADD children because they are vulnerable to the experimental context created when items are presented at a slow rate over an extended time period.